Kyla's Diary - Chapter 14: Good News
“The Luddites did not question technological progress. They questioned who controlled it, who reaped its benefits, and who was forced to bear its risks.”
The moderator waited for the applause to end.
Kyla stood with the other campaign volunteers near the side of the Plaza stage. The volunteers had been given a narrow section behind the first rows.
The moderator looked down at the display in front of her.
“We have reached the end of the debate,” she said. “Each candidate will have two minutes for a closing statement. The order was set before the debate. Mr. Rook, you first.”
“Tomorrow,” Liam said, “Helios decides between two futures.”
He let that sit.
“In one future, we continue moving forward. We use every tool available to us. We complete the mission our ancestors began more than five hundred years ago.”
He looked across the audience.
“They left Earth knowing they would never reach Ross 128. They built Helios for generations they would never meet. They trusted us to finish what they started.”
A few people applauded, but Liam continued over them.
“In the other future, we allow fear to decide what tools we can use. We place new restrictions on technology when we should be asking how it can help us survive.”
His voice remained calm.
“Nearly a thousand years ago, there were people who opposed the machines changing their world. History remembers them as Luddites. They destroyed technology because they feared progress and believed they could preserve the past by standing against the future.”
Liam looked toward Sheila.
“Today, no one is destroying machines. The methods have changed. Now people call for restrictions. They ask us to weaken the systems that protect us because those systems make them uncomfortable.”
A few people near the front nodded.
“Fear did not carry us more than ten light-years from Earth. Fear has never carried anyone forward.” He let his hands open. “The mission needs courage. Tomorrow, choose the future that finishes the journey.”
The applause came fast and full. Liam did not look pleased with himself, which was the thing about him Kyla had never been able to dislike as much as she wanted to. He meant every word. He always did.
The moderator raised a hand until the Plaza quieted again.
“Miss Adeyemi. Two minutes.”
She waited longer than Liam had. She waited until the Plaza went completely quiet.
“Time passes. Generations come and go. But we continue repeating the same false accusation.”
She shook her head once.
“We are not opposed to technology. We are not opposed to progress. We are not opposed to arrival. And caution is not fear.”
She rested one hand against the edge of the lectern.
“The Luddites did not question technological progress. They questioned who controlled it, who reaped its benefits, and who was forced to bear its risks.”
She looked across the crowd.
“That is still the question.”
A few people began to applaud, but Sheila continued.
“Logminter was created to preserve our memories and our knowledge. It was not created to decide which orders to follow or which lives to risk.”
She looked toward Liam.
“Mr. Rook says we must use every technology available to increase our chances of arrival.”
She paused.
“I agree.”
The Plaza became still.
“If we are serious about improving our chances, we should restore deep-space communication.”
A murmur moved through the audience.
“Earth may have centuries of additional observations of Ross 128. Information about its planets, its stellar activity, and the conditions we may encounter when we arrive.”
Sheila’s voice became firmer.
“And Surya may already have accomplished what Helios is preparing to do. They may know what worked, what failed, and what they would do differently.”
“That knowledge could save lives. It could help us complete the mission.”
She looked toward Liam again.
“Yet Mr. Rook opposes restoring communication.”
The murmur grew louder.
“This campaign is not a choice between progress and fear. It is a choice between two ideas of progress.”
Her eyes moved from one end of the Plaza to the other.
“One gives more authority to a system that was never designed to exercise it.”
The warning light beside the moderator began to pulse.
“The other asks humanity for help.”
The timer sounded.
For a moment, no one moved.
Then the applause began.
The moderator thanked both candidates and reminded everyone that voting would begin the following morning. Her words disappeared beneath the noise as people left their seats and moved toward the campaign areas.
Sheila stepped down from the stage.
Two volunteers reached her first. One embraced her. The other began talking about the reaction from the undecided section. Her Whisperzend pulsed repeatedly as messages arrived.
When Sheila saw Kyla, she moved through the group toward her.
“You did it,” Kyla said.
Sheila shook her head. “We did.”
“You were the one on the stage,” Kyla replied.
Sheila smiled. “You gave me the argument.”
Kyla looked toward Liam’s side of the Plaza. He was surrounded by supporters, answering questions as though the debate had not ended.
“It was only a suggestion,” she said.
“No.” Sheila lowered her voice. “It gave us a way through their argument.”
“They’ve spent the entire campaign saying we’re afraid of technology,” Sheila continued. “That we’re against progress. Against arrival.”
She glanced back toward the stage.
“Now they have to explain why restoring communication does not count as progress.”
One of the volunteers approached and whispered that Sheila was needed. Sheila nodded, then looked back at Kyla.
“Thank you.”
Before Kyla could answer, Sheila moved away.
A memory returned without warning: Darius sitting at a Mirador table when they were teenagers, arguing that Earth could still guide them. That Surya might know something they did not. She had walked away from him.
At the time, she had believed the Disconnect did not matter.
It had taken many years to understand what he had been trying to say.
Julian approached and touched her arm.
“You okay?”
“Yes.” She looked toward the stage. “I was thinking about the Disconnect.”
She watched Sheila disappear into the waiting crowd.
“Maybe this time, we could end it.”
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Sheila’s campaign volunteers had gathered in one of the Civic Arc meeting rooms to wait for the results.
The room was louder than Kyla expected. People whispered predictions, watched the public feed, and pretended not to count the minutes.
Sheila stood near the front with her arms folded. Kyla and Julian stood beside her, watching the display panel in silence.
Kyla's Whisperzend pulsed with an incoming call from her mother.
“Mom,” she answered.
“Congratulations,” Lina said.
Kyla looked toward the results display.
“They haven’t announced anything yet. It should be any minute, but I think it’s going to be very close.”
“I’m not talking about the election,” Lina said. “The Natality Board approved your request.”
Kyla stopped breathing for a moment.
Julian looked at her.
“We were approved?” she whispered.
“Yes, your request was approved,” Lina said. “You can start trying when you’re ready.”
The careful flatness she used with patients gave way to something else.
“You’re going to be a mother, Kyla.”
Kyla turned toward Julian. His expression changed slowly, the way it did when he needed time to understand what was happening.
“We’re going to have a child,” she said.
Julian pulled her into his arms.
The people nearest them turned. A few smiled without knowing why.
“What happened?” Sheila asked.
Kyla looked at her, still holding Julian’s hand.
“The Natality Board approved us.”
Sheila held Kyla tightly.
“That is good news,” she said.
Kyla looked toward the public feed.
“Now we have to win.”
The volume from the display rose.
Everyone turned.
“The Election Office is prepared to announce the result for the under-forty Council seat.”
The room went silent.
“Of two hundred forty valid votes cast: Sheila Adeyemi, one hundred twenty-two. Liam Rook, one hundred eighteen.”
A pause followed, as though the feed needed to check its own arithmetic.
“Sheila Adeyemi is elected to the under-forty Council seat with fifty point eight percent of the vote.”
No one reacted at first. Then the room exploded.
Sheila covered her mouth with one hand. People surrounded her, cheering and calling her name.
Kyla did not move with them.
Only four votes.
She could probably name them. She had likely spoken to some of them.
Julian’s arm came around her.
Two victories within the same hour.
A family they had permission to begin. A future they had helped choose.
The public feed continued.
“The Election Office is also prepared to announce the result for the other elected Council seat.”
The room quieted again.
“First Officer Adrian Vale has been elected.”
The celebration did not stop, but it changed.
Adrian Vale was a staunch Destinarian and one of Liam’s closest allies. Sheila had won, but the election had left the future of Helios more divided than anyone in the room wanted to admit.
Thanks for reading Kyla’s Diary, a novel from the Theogenic Universe. New chapters will be published weekly. Subscribe to continue the journey aboard Helios.